How Clean Are the Tops of Soda Cans?

Overview

Objectives/Goals If I buy a soda at school, what is the most effective way to clean the top of the can before drinking the soda? Methods/Materials I bought four cans of soda from the cafeteria and four cans from the soda machine at school. From each group, one can was not cleaned, one was wiped with my t-shirt, one was rinsed with water and dried with a paper towel and one was washed with soap and water. A sterile q-tip was used to take a sample from each can and put on a petri dish. The samples were incubated to see if bacteria was present. I checked them for four days and counted the bacteria colonies growing each day. Results The reults were the cans that were not cleaned grew the most bacteria colonies. The cans that were cleaned grew fewer colonies. The caferteria can cleaned with a t-shirt had the fewest bacteria colonies for that group. The vending machine can that was washed with soap and water was the cleanest for that group. Conclusions/Discussion Tops of un-cleaned cans grew the most bacteria colonies. All types of cleaning a studnet can do at school were successful in reducing bacteria growth. Soda cans should be at least wiped off before you drink out of them.

Competition history

• CSEF 2002 Microbiology · Entry J1308

Resources

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